Kendrick Lamar News

Tomorrow, Dr. Dre is dropping... something. Ice Cube&nbsp;said as much&nbsp;in an interview earlier this week, calling the release in question "an album inspired by the "Compton" movie," referring to the August 14th N.W.A. biopic&nbsp;that he, Dre and director F. Gary Gray have been working on. But will this be just another "music inspired by the film"-style soundtrack? Or something bigger?

Of the many things that old heads will insist "were better back in the day," diss tracks are among the few that most younger rap fans can also agree upon. Even if you didn't live through them, the 2Pac / Biggie, Eazy-E / Dr. Dre and Jay Z / Nas beefs all produced shot-firing tracks that still loom large today-- Notorious' "Who Shot Ya" is still referenced by rappers all of the time, and Nas' "Ether" is now so baked into the foundation of rap that its title is now synonymous with a devastating diss.

For several&nbsp;years now, BJ The Chicago Kid has been one of R&amp;B's unsung heroes. He's guested on tracks by Freddie Gibbs,&nbsp;Casey Veggies, Big K.R.I.T., Chance The Rapper, Vic Mensa, Joey Bada$$ and pretty much everybody in TDE, and now it's time for him to step into the spotlight as a solo artist. This fall, he'll release his major label debut,&nbsp;In My Mind&nbsp;(not to be confused with Pharrell's debut album of the same name), on Motown, and it'll have some pretty massive features on it.

In a new interview&nbsp;with the New York Times, Eminem stated his belief that hip hop is in a good place in 2015.
The interview mostly addressed Eminem's role and experience working on the soundtrack for the upcoming 50 Cent-produced film Southpaw, but also took the time to share his opinion on the state of the genre.
Here's what he had to say:

TDE hasn't had a very good week when it comes to copyright claims. Yesterday, news of a lawsuit over the image used on Kendrick Lamar's "The Blacker The Berry" artwork made the rounds, and today, it's been discovered that the label's YouTube page has been "terminated".

Kendrick Lamar is the subject of a new lawsuit, which also names Interscope and Aftermath as plaintiffs. The lawsuit comes from a photographer who alleges Kendrick stole his image of a mother breastfeeding for the single art of his single "The Blacker The Berry" off To Pimp A Butterfly.

Over the past few years, L.A.'s Glasses Malone has quietly been building a buzz, collaborating with everyone from Ty Dolla $ign to Tyga before 2015. It was really "Thuggin'," a Kendrick lamar-featuring track shared earlier this year, that made him a household name, and now he'll be capitalizing on that with a new album.&nbsp;#GH2: Life Ain't Nuthin' But&nbsp;doesn't have a release date yet, but Malone's just shared the artwork and star-studded tracklist. View the former in the gallery above, and the latter below.&nbsp;

Whether you've been listening to Thundercat for years or just now hearing his name mentioned alongside Kendrick Lamar's, there is an undeniable mystique about this bassist / singer virtuoso. Born Stephen Bruner in Los Angeles, Thundercat is currently making serious waves in the worlds of hip hop, jazz, R&amp;B, and funk.

Kendrick took to TMZ Live today to react to criticism from Fox News pundit Geraldo Rivera&nbsp;in regards to his performance at Sunday's BET Awards. After Kendrick opened the ceremony by rapping "Alright" from atop a police car, Rivera remarked, "this is why I say that hip hop has done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years."

Meek Mill&nbsp;was on Power 105&nbsp;to discuss Dreams Worth More Than Money the other day, and while speaking with Angie Martinez, gave us a window into his personal taste in music. He was quite honest with Martinez, laying it all out there with artists that he both likes and dislikes. Most notably, he said that he wasn't a fan of Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole.&nbsp;

At Sunday's BET Awards, Kendrick Lamar delivered a rousting performance of "Alright" that featured a vandalized cop car and a huge American flag, but apparently, not everyone was a fan. The most vehement (and absurd) takedown of the show came from a very predictable place, namely FOX News, where hip hop is routinely villainized by out-of-touch talking heads. A whole roundtable was hosted on the subject, but the most striking accusation came from Geraldo Rivera.

The 2015&nbsp;BET Awards went down in L.A. last night resulting in performances from Meek Mill, Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, The Weeknd, Big Sean, as well as reunions from&nbsp;Bad Boy and&nbsp;N.W.A., and&nbsp;more.

In the past few weeks, we've been stoking our curiosity about rappers' new albums by coming up with wish lists of the various things we'd think would ensure dopeness. We've already dreamed up idealized versions of Childish Gambino's upcoming project and Lil Wayne's quickly approaching&nbsp;Free Weezy Album, and now it's time to tackle a long in-the-works sequel to one of Cali's most celebrated albums of the 2000s.

After releasing&nbsp;SURF&nbsp;with Donnie Trumpet &amp; The Social Experiment, Chance the Rapper has been busy preparing for the first Teens In the Park Festival, which took place this afternoon on Chicago's Northerly Island. The free festival was only available to young Chicagoans, ages 13 to 14, and it featured musical performances from Chance, Donnie Trumpet, DLow, and more young acts hailing from Chicago.&nbsp;

The hip hop crew is an essential part of success. Whether big or small, every rapper has an entourage. Sometimes it's full of rappers, and other times it's just his buddies from back in the day, nonetheless, weak links in a crew can water down the crew as a whole-- something we took into consideration when crafting this list. You have the multimedia approach that Odd Future takes, and also the full-on lyrical assault that Wu-Tang Clan makes. Both are great crews, but who would comprise a list of the best rap crews of all time?